Prongs' Rescue
by ariadne29
Summary: James and Lily were known for having defied Voldemort personally three times and escaped each time. This is a little recounting of one of their narrow escapes.
1. Grim News

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. All rights belong to JK Rowling.

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><p><em>"...Prongs rode again last night." - Albus Dumbledore, OP<em>

_"But though Death searched for the third brother for many years, he was never able to find him. It was only when he had attained a great age that the younger brother finally took off the Cloak of Invisibility and gave it to his son" - Tales of Beadle the Bard_

Prologue_  
><em>

James Potter listened to the loud bangs and crashes coming from outside the door. They are going deeper into the Shrieking Shack; drawing nearer and nearer to the closed room where James was hiding. He could hear a demented, high-pitched cackle amidst all the racket and it made the tumultuous noises even more ominous. _Cousin Bella's up for some muggle-born hunting with her master._ He wasn't surprised, though; Bellatrix rarely leaves Voldemort's side especially when it comes to murdering muggle-borns, a pastime they both enjoy. But the idea that Bella was willing – no, _eager_ to murder these people who were in Hogwarts with her, who ate and talked and had classes with her, infuriated James so much that he was almost impatient for the imminent confrontation.

He stood up from the rickety chair he was sitting on and faced the door; his wand on the ready. He needed to keep them distracted, to stall for enough time to let Evans smuggle the others out of the Shack. He would have preferred if a few other Order of the Phoenix members were there to back him up but James wasn't worried; he has escaped from more difficult situations, escaping Voldemort would be a breeze.

His mind went through what happened earlier that day. He was back home with his parents, telling them of his plans of going away and staying permanently with the Order so that he can be more useful to their cause. They didn't take his news well but James knew his parents would never stop him from doing what he wants; all they could do was to try and persuade him against going. James smiled sadly, knowing that he was going to break the hearts of the two people who had loved and took care of him his entire life, and told them that he had quite made up his mind.

A loud and impatient knocking startled them and interrupted their somewhat gloomy têtê-á-têtê. All three instinctively drew out their wands. James rushed towards the living room and opened the door.

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><p><span>Chapter 1: Grim News<span>

Severus Snape was the last person in the world he had expected to see standing on his front porch. He was quite agitated; his long, lank, dark hair disheveled, his hands doubled into fists on his side, clenched so hard the knuckles showed white. He wore his usual dour face, and yet James saw a plea in his black eyes.

"What is it?" James asked, suspending the usual harsh and mocking tone he uses when talking to Snape and opting for a kinder voice upon seeing the other's discomfort. "Is there something you need, Snape?" Snape did not speak. James became suspicious and remembered that he was talking to a suspected Death-Eater.

"Why are you here?" he asked, no longer hiding his disdain. "If you're here to force me into telling where the Order's headquarters are, you should know better. You might as well kill me for I will never be able to tell you where it is, even if I did want to." Still, Snape was silent, staring fixedly on a potted plant in the windowsill, until James became annoyed. "But then, you will never be able to kill me, Snape," he taunted, "You owe me your life."

Snape threw him a scornful look. "I'm not here for your so-called Order," he said scathingly, then hesitated before continuing, "I'm here to tell you that the Dark Lord has plotted another mass murder. He plans to round up as many muggle-borns as he can find." Snape stared at James intently, letting the weight of his words sink in, "Lily's in danger. You have to take her to safety. Hide her, take her away."

James raised his eyebrows sardonically. "What makes you so sure he's going to kill Evans?"

"Are you dumb, Potter?" Snape yelled at him furiously and James felt like they were back at Hogwarts, having their usual, daily run-ins. _same old Snivellus._ Except there was a certain hint of desperation in Snape's voice, as if he didn't really want to fight back.

"Haven't you figured out that Lily is one of the few muggle-borns who's explicitly defying the Dark Lord by joining Dumbledore's stupid club and fighting against his Death-eaters? Did you think he wasn't going to take it as an insult that a mere muggle-born is able to live freely and even fight him?" Snape continued, "What's more, Lily lives in a village teeming with muggle-borns! The Dark Lord plans to go there at sundown today!"

At this, James' expression turned grim. "How did Voldemort find out where Evans lives?" he asked. When Snape couldn't meet his eyes he seized him by the collar, almost lifting him from the ground and forced him to meet his eyes. "How did Voldemort find out where Lily lives, Snape?" James repeated, struggling to control his fury, "Turned traitor at the littlest prodding from your master, have you? Or was ever-loyal _Sev'_ willing enough, after all, to betray his best friend in exchange for eternal glory?" James' anger threatened to overcome him. He was shaking Snape violently, shouting, "Answer me you bloody coward, answer me!"

Snape tried to free himself from his grasp and fight him, shouting back, "How dare you accuse me, Potter! You know nothing of what I went through to protect her!"

"Well, whatever you did, it wasn't very successful, was it?" James retorted, "You led Voldemort right to her, didn't you?"

Remorse was etched in Snape's pained expression. He looked almost pleadingly at James, as if by making him understand, he could be forgiven for the danger he brought upon Lily Evans' life. "I couldn't help it. I tried; truly, I did. But the Dark Lord is an extremely powerful Legilimens and I have yet to master Occlumency." Controlling his emotions, Snape looked at James squarely and said, "Whatever my failures are, I cannot undo it. I came to you because I knew you will do whatever it takes to save her."

"Why do you even care so much about her? After all, she's just a _mere _muggle."

It was Snape's turn to grab him from the collar. They glared at each other for a few, tense moments before James spoke, "Alright, if you're so besotted with her why don't you save her yourself?" Snape's grip on his shirt, slackened and he looked away.

"Oh, of course!" James said derisively, "You can't do that without ruining yourself in the eyes of your beloved Dark Lord! You'd incur his terrible wrath! Why die for the only person who ever cared about you, eh Snape?"

Snape wasn't looking at him. He kept his head bowed even as he said, "Just save her, Potter. Take her with you. Hide her where he could never find her." He turned and walked away. "Lily Evans will never turn her back on you," James called out to his retreating back, "yet, you willingly turn your back on her every time you go back to Voldemort!" Snape continued walking and didn't look back. "Stop being a coward, Severus!" He reached the end of the Potters' driveway and, turning, disapparated.


	2. Fetching Evans

Chapter II: Fetching Evans

The afternoon sun was shining low in the horizon when James, flying on his broom, landed in front of the Evans' home. Mrs. Evans answered the door. Her smile disappeared upon seeing him and James was reminded of how much she was like Petunia, in looks and in temperament. Except for her hair. "Good evening, Mrs. Evans. Is Lily at home?" Her eyes narrowed as she replied, "Isn't it a bit late for a visit, James?" Only she ever called him that. All the other Evans called him Potter to his face. "I need to talk to her," James said earnestly, "it's extremely important."

"She's not here. I'm sorry to have to tell you this, James," she said, not looking sorry at all, "We don't want you to come visiting Lily anymore. I think you're a bad influence on her."

They stared silently at each other for a moment, each unwilling to yield to the other, before James said, "If that's what you wish, ma'am, but first let me talk to her." Her expression, once civil, turned to anger. "I told you she's not here!"

James was about to make an equally angry retort when a loud cough interrupted them. Mr. Evans approached his wife and, with a hand on her elbow, said, "Now, now, dear…" he stared meaningfully at her and added, "let me handle this." He then turned his kind eyes to James and said, "Now son, what is it you want to tell Lily?" James paused for a second, wondering whether he should tell him. He had always liked Lily's father. Where Mrs. Evans was aloof, he was always warm and welcoming. But James worried that they might panic if he told them that their daughter was in mortal peril and decided to let Lily do the explanations. Finally, he said, "I can't tell you, sir. I think it's best if I tell Lily first." Mrs. Evans gasped in indignation. "Audacious!"

James was losing his patience. If he had to go through this in every muggle-born home in the village, he doubted they will ever be able to escape from Voldemort. "Sir, I haven't got time to argue with you! I need to talk –" A flash of flowing, red hair behind the couple caught his eye. "Lily!"

An astonished Lily Evans' appeared from behind her parents "Potter? What is it?" James breathed a sigh of relief then said, "We have to talk."

Turning to her parents, she said, "Why didn't you tell me I had a visitor?" "Lily, go back inside," Mrs. Evans commanded her, "We've told you before, we forbade you to continue dealing with the likes of him."

Lily rolled her eyes in exasperation and replied, "And I've told you, mother – my work requires that I _do _deal with the likes of Potter. It's not like he comes here merely to see me." (_That's not entirely untrue; _James thought wryly) "Potter keeps me updated on developments in our campaign. He conveys important messages from Dumbledore and the other members. When he says he needs to see me, I can't take it blithely." She prevented any more protests from her mother by coming out into the porch and closing the door.

Amusement lit her entrancing, green eyes as she said, "Sorry about that, Potter. She likes you, really; only, she's convinced you're going to ask for my hand in marriage." Her smile faded as quickly as her mother's upon seeing his grave expression.

"You're in danger, Evans. Voldemort plans to come here by nightfall and murder all the muggle-borns in your village."

"Who told you that?"

"We haven't got much time," he replied, avoiding her eyes. "You have to hurry and help me gather the others. We need to transfer you all to another location."

"How did you know about this?" she insisted. James was forced to look at her, imaging how her beautiful face would fold upon hearing his answer. _You asked for it._ "Severus Snape told me earlier this afternoon."

She looked aghast. "So he really is a Death Eater?"

"I'm afraid so," James answered gently and consolingly, expecting the inevitable tears. But Lily only shook her head sadly. When she looked back at James, there was a determined expression on her face. They began walking out of the Evans' driveway; Lily shouted: "I'll be back in a bit!" to her worried parents who had by now opened the door again, demanding that she get back inside.

"Have you alerted the other members?" she said, as they sprinted down the street.

Without slowing down, he answered, "I have sent patronuses to Sirius and the others but we do not have much time to wait for them. We need to gather all the other muggle-borns in your village. How many are there in this place?"

"All the wizards in this village are muggle-born."

"Blimey, no wonder Voldemort zeroed in on this place. How many?"

"There's at least fifteen excluding me," she replied, "ten of which are underage." James grimaced. _Too many._

"What's your plan?" she asked, sensing his predicament.

"Well, we obviously cannot let a bunch of kids fight Voldemort and his minions and we'll most probably be greatly outnumbered anyway so I reckon the best plan would be some sort of escape."

"We need something better than 'some sort of escape'," she retorted. "Are we going to apparate them all away from here? What about their parents and the other muggles? Voldemort wouldn't think twice of murdering everybody who gets left behind in this village."

James thought the same thing before he came here, trying to come up with a plan that'll somehow transport them all away from that place and save the other muggles from Voldemort. A stroke of inspiration came to him when, upon coming up to his room to fetch his invisibility cloak, he glanced upon a poster of the Montrose Magpies on his wall. "I'll explain later. Right now we need to assemble everybody."


	3. The Plan

Chapter III: The Plan

After an hour and a half of going from house to house, 13 muggle-born witches and wizards were gathered outside the Evans' home: three adult wizards and one witch, two boys and two girls who were barely sixteen, three girls and two boys who had just turned eleven. One of the boys of Evans' estimated 10 underage was not home, and one adult witch refused to come no matter how hard they tried to persuade her. "I can't just leave my children," she said simply.

They were waiting for Evans. She was explaining the situation to her parents and saying her goodbyes. James didn't come with her; for the last hour and a half, he had to explain to nine parents why they are suddenly taking their children away and he frankly had enough of it. Meanwhile, he had more important things to attend to.

The whole village was inaccessible through apparition. James guessed that it was Snape who placed the enchantments to protect Lily. This was crucial to the success of James plan. But he knew it wasn't enough to repel a pest as resilient as Voldemort. They needed to add additional protective spells for the muggles they will leave behind, just in case Voldemort decides that 14 muggle-borns aren't worth pursuing when there's a whole village of filthy muggles to kill. James hoped that his enchantments would force Voldemort and his Death Eaters to run after them. Hidden under the invisibility cloak, he walked towards a nearby vacant lot and began casting the spells.

When he came back, Lily Evans was waiting outside their gate with the others looking worried and annoyed. "Where've you been?" she asked crossly. James raised his eyebrows in amusement. "I had to attend to something," he said, "were you worried?" Lily swatted his arm in response. "Stop fooling around!" she hissed, "Voldemort and his Death Eaters might arrive any second and we still don't have a plan!"

"Who said we don't have a plan?" James asked. He gave her a wink which only infuriated her even more.

He turned towards the others. They were getting restless. One teenage witch was trying to calm down a terror struck, eleven-year old girl who was shaking so hard that her teeth rattled. A dark, burly wizard in his early thirties was grumbling something about "wasting valuable time waiting for a kid to come up with a plan." Another middle-aged wizard with thinning, brown hair came up to him and told him that he was free to leave the group if he doesn't shut his big mouth. The other grown up, a lean, quiet man named Mr. Bannister, tried to come between them. Their bickering annoyed Mrs. Wilson, a witch who was in her sixties, so much that she hollered to the two men, "If you immature gits don't stop fighting, I will transfigure you both into ferrets!"

"Listen up, everybody!" James said loudly, and all was quiet as they turn to listen to him. "Before I came here, I discovered that somebody placed an enchantment on the whole village, making it impossible for anyone to apparate inside its boundaries. This means that Voldemort would have to fly in order to get here. Just a while ago, I added a few spells of my own. My spells created a barrier which would prevent anyone on air from landing inside the village's premises." The entirety of James words sank in and murmurs of uncertainty were heard among the group.

"Does that mean we need not go?" the wizard with the balding head asked sceptically.

"That's your plan, boy?" asked the burly wizard derisively, "Your spells won't keep Voldemort out. He'll find a way to break the enchantments! And you want us to just sit here, awaiting our doom, hoping your pathetic spells would hold?"

"I think he wants us to fly," said one tall, teenage boy with a thatch of blond hair. James smiled at him. "That's quite astute of you, Altaire," he said to him; then addressing the crowd again, he asked, "Who owns a broom?" Only the three eleven-year-old girls and the two bickering man did not raise their hand. "Right. I need you to get your brooms. Now you two," he pointed at the two youngest boys, "need to lend those two," – and he pointed to the two grown men – "your brooms. The youngest would be paired with the four teens and with Mrs. Wilson. The men and I would be behind you to try and parry the curses they will throw at us. We head for Hogsmeade." Within moments, brooms were whooshing through the air as their owners summoned them.

"What about me?" asked Lily testily. Now she was even more annoyed at him, thinking that he left her out of the action. "You'll be leading the group to Hogsmeade," James answered simply. "You think I can't fight alongside you men?" she accused.

"Don't worry, I'll let a Death Eater or two get past me so that you can have someone to shoot."

"You're infuriating!" Lily shouted.

"And you're being stupid!" he shot back, no longer amused. "Do you think this is some kind of a game, Evans? You want to prove your strength? And I thought I was the reckless one!"

They glared at each other for a long moment. Finally, James sighed and said, "Look, I need you in front of the group because you're the only one whom the others would follow. I need you to keep everyone together. Don't think there's going to be no danger involved. There's a high possibility that Death Eaters or Voldemort himself will get past us, and you're the only one I can trust to defend the others and make sure they don't scatter."

She looked away, chastened but not entirely convinced. "I'm Sorry. I just want to help, too. I don't like sitting around, watching my friends die while I feel utterly useless."

"Believe me you're hardly that," James said, the smile back on his lips, "and since you care so much about me, I'll promise you won't see me die. Not tonight, at least." She rolled her eyes, but she was smiling too.

Darkness descended as the last of the sun's rays sank into the horizon. "Sir," said one worried, dark-haired teenage girl to James, "do you think they're coming?" "Don't worry," he replied reassuringly, "we're ready for them." He tried to lighten her up saying, "By the way, nice broomsticks. I'm surprised you girls own one. Not all girls I know are good at flying." The girl held her head a little higher when she said, "We're Quidditch players at school."

James beamed. "Really? That's wonderful. What positions do you play?"

"I'm one of Ravenclaw's Chasers. Nicola," –she indicated the girl beside Lily– "is our Keeper. Johan there," –and she pointed to a tall, brown-haired boy– "is another Chaser."

"What about that other guy?" Lily asked, "the blond one? Altaire or what's-his-name?"

"He's the Gryffindor Seeker," said the girl named Nicola, "and every other team's worst nightmare."

James and Lily laughed, remembering their own times at Hogwarts, when all they worried about were Quidditch matches and winning the House Cup.

The half-moon rising in the sky was suddenly obscured by dense smoke appearing out of nowhere. A sinister heaviness settled upon the night air. Everyone stopped talking and turned their gaze at the night sky.

"They're here," James said with grim foreboding, "Mount you brooms, everyone."


End file.
